I've searched through the Old Testament and have never found this name: Azrael, the avenging angel. Where does this come from?
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You are correct. Tzedaka is the word in hebrew for "Charity" or even better translated exactly as "Righteousness" or "Justice" - meaning a righteous act (not in the Bill&Ted sense:-))
Tzedakah is more than a Charitable act. It is sharing with others what G-d in His kindness has given us.

Tz is the letter Tzaddi(k) in hebrew, sometimes transliterated as Z, but it makes a tz sound as in "Hertz"
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I always thought that Moloch was the name of an Old Testament regional deity that called for some form of child sacrifice by its followers. Or was this a case of a deity being generically referred to as "Moloch", like the deity whose followers were challenged by Elijah was called "Ba'al"?
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I can just tell you what a Malach is. A Malach is an almost completely spiritual being, but is not sentient, meaning they have no free will of their own, but rather do G-d's bidding, and are spiritually sationary, in that they don't have bad days and good days, cannot ascend to higher levels or fall down to lower ones but remain within certain parameters, but rather fulfill their task wholeheartedly, without fail, accepting the yoke of Heaven. They do not resemble humans (as they are not physically oriented) and they are spiritually giant awe inspiring beings.
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noted and will be answered.
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:-)
Thanks.
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I don't believe this name has source in Judaism. But it is in the Smurfs!:-) This can be confused with the Hebrew name Azriel which is a conjunction two words Ozer and Kel, it means G-d will help me.
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:-)
There is also a character in the Batman universe by this name. They claim it is a name that came from the Bible, but I've never heard of it or can I find any info on it. Unless it's a Catholic thing that I don't know about, then I don't think it has Christian roots either...
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Correct. Moloch was an idolotrous cult, like Ba'al.

With transliteration from Hebrew it is sometimes hard to derive the questioner's intended reference. Often the word is spelled VERY differently in Hebrew, but is tranliterated similiarly in English. So I try to go with the most common usage of a term or name.
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Yes. It is used in Batman too!
:-)

I believe it is Islamic in origin.
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Great thread, keep up the good work Rabbi! :-)
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Thanks bro!
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Hey, check out my Corona Gorda Thread, no questions like "Hey Rabs, why don't we have a Tat Brown CG yet?" :-)

or "What kinda screen name is TomHagen for a Rabbi?"

okay, so I loved Robert Duvall's charachter and thought it was cool, relatively anonymous name...
a peace-loving consigliere!
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Good evening! Lila Tov! Gut Nacht! I'm out.

be back tomorrow...
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all's quiet on the front...
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Here's a question: Say a fellow BOTL came to me in the hopes of showing certain special Rav his appreciation. Would it be bad for me to help this mensch out by possibly providing an address? :-)
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Ok so a bit more on angelology. I know Michael was the angel of Israel (or rather, I believe that I have read that, correct me if I'm wrong). Do jews have personal guardian angels?
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Granted I'm not a Rabbi or play one in real life but I believe for Jews and specially boys/men their guardian angel is their mother's or so they believe, the mothers that is. :-)
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Malach Michoel is not necessarily the angel of Israel, just a very, very high level Malach that has been tied to many Jewish events.

No. Jews do not have personal guardian angels. G-d is our only guardian, who neither slumbers, nor sleeps.

Here is a nice piece on "angelology":

http://www.chabad.org/library/articl...els-and-Us.htm
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as long as it is not my mother-in-law!!:-)
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